And So It Went
by ChibiEarth
Summary: There are always supposed to be standard cases. Investigate the crime, make an arrest, and help bring some form of justice to a family. Then there are times, when cases touch in a way that cannot be described. Written for Enthusiastic Fish for the White Elephant Exchange 2013 at NFA.
1. Prologue

NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing except original characters.

Title: And So It Went

Rating: FR-15

By: ChibiEarth (NFA - Kagome

Genre: Drama, Casefic, Angst, Humor

Characters: Timothy McGee, NCIS Team, and …?

Warnings: Minor Violence, Minor Language, Season Ten Spoilers

Prompt from Enthusiastic Fish: 3. I never knew.

A/N: This was written Enthusiastic Fish for the WEE Exchange at NFA. It is actually one of my longer stories and I sincerely hope I have made it enjoyable. There is lots of Timmy here with our fair lots of drama, a bit of humor, and…also a surprise?

x-x

_Prologue:_

His fingers searched for something, anything to confirm that the girl was alright. She was young, an innocent, and an eyewitness to a crime. Yet here she was, lying in a pool of blood.

The disturbing thing was the blood that was seeking out of the wound had started to roll down the side of her head, covering girl's strawberry blonde hair a dark stain of red.

His frantically searched for a pulse…trying to remember how they had gotten to this point.

However, the shot that rang out closely near his head made a deafening noise as it lodged itself into the wall, mere feet above his head?

All Timothy McGee knew was that he had two choices…

Use the remaining bullets and hope he hit the man? Or even worse, wait until the man descended upon them like a wild cat lurking its prey, waiting for exact moment to get close enough to actually get a good enough shot to be finish him off as well?


	2. Chapter 1

NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing except original characters.

x-x

Chapter One:

She could not believe it. Her brother was declared missing. However, the teenager knew the truth; oh did she know the truth.  
He was dead, she knew it. It was the pain in her heart that confirmed.

The girl wondered remotely how well she could keep lying, trying to protect herself while dealing with her own grief. She had to make it sound like she had not heard anything the night her brother had disappeared, even with her hearing aids out of her ears at the time.  
However, she had heard those noises. The noises of her brother waking her up in a panic, telling her to climb up in their attic and hide there and the sudden loud gunshot that had echoed throughout the home, less than a minute later. There were later noises and thuds coming from below her but the gunshot had made her ears ring, causing her tinnitus to ring loudly.

It had taken her hours to get the courage to climb down from the attic, having set on the wooden boards in the frame of the attic to avoid falling through the roof. By then it had been quiet for hours. The thought that the possibility of the two men still being in her home was still there, she was scared.

It was only then, after not noticing a trace of her brother or even the sight of someone having been in their home made the situation even worse.

She knew if had revealed what had truly happened mere hours before to the police, she would be the next victim. Her brother's car was missing along with his keys.

Now, here she was, lying to the authorities that her brother had simply not come home.

The only thought that kept crossing her mind was, 'When are they coming back for me?'

x-x

Chirp!

Friday afternoon, which normally meant the team, got two days off for the weekend but instead, they had the rare fortune of being sent home at 11:00am for a change. At least, that was the wish unless Gibbs called them into work on the weekend.

What had made the team's weekend was the fact that they had no cases for almost two and half weeks, so Tim had decided to spend the spare time while he was not busy simply putting working on paperwork, getting ready for JAG appearances at court to testify when needed, and of course, giving his wonderful dog a walk early Friday morning.

He could also recall the excitement that had danced upon Tony and Ziva's faces when they had arrived at work earlier that day:

"Stan is getting married soon, yes Tim?"

Tim turned his attention towards Ziva where he was sitting at his computer, attempting to work on paperwork again for the 15th day in a row.

Tony currently was away from his desk, using the restroom who had muttered something like, "Daddy's got to got take a wee now," before disappearing from his desk, leaving Ziva staring at him in disbelief and Tim rolling his eyes in a friendly gesture before trying to hide the smirk on his face. Tony had already been gone for a few minutes so it would not be too much longer until Tony popped in. The last time Tim had even seen Gibbs was about 30 minutes ago, disappearing downstairs to visit with Ducky about something.

Tim had to be honest with himself. The wedding had not crossed his mind much. Ever since the team had found out about Stan getting married, Ziva had talked excitedly about getting to attend another wedding. Seeing Ziva getting excited about it, he had made a mental note to use that in his next novel if he ever decided to continue the Deep Six series.

However, for Tim at the time, he had learned that his father had Stage 4 cancer and then for a few days afterwards, he had been comforting Sarah because of that.

"Yes Ziva, I think it is three weeks from now, if I recall correctly."

A slight confused look crossed Ziva's face, "We could possibly carpool to the wedding. It would safe gas and money if the two-"

"Woah! Hold it, you guys are planning a car trip to Burley's wedding without me?"

A voice sounded from behind Ziva's desk

"Tony, that was a fast weewee..." Ziva replied.

Both of the men eyed Ziva, looks of disbelief on their faces.

"Yeah, I'm not even correcting that term properly..." Tony remarked...

So now he sat, outside the Big Brother, Big Sister building. Birds were chirping, spring was here, the skies were blue with partial clouds filling the sky. It would be a perfect day to be outside doing just about anything outside.

"Mr. McGee?"

Tim turned his attention towards voice.

"Oh, sorry Linda. Hello and call me Tim." He had seen Linda a few times in the past working with Catherine and she had visited with him once before but they had barely been introduced to each other.

Linda smiled, "Yes, sorry about that Mr. M…I mean Tim. My boss, Catherine, who normally is supposed to meet with you, is not able to today. There seems to be a really bad bug going around here at work."

Tim nodded, "I can relate to that experience. Well, when you talk to her next, tell her that I hope she gets to feeling better."

"Sure thing. So, I'm reason we wanted to talk to you is to ask you something. Your background has always checked out well and currently all our other female mentors are either sick from the same bug Catherine has or a lot of them have become unable to take on a second child. I know it is a lot to ask but could you possibly take of our more…special cases?"

Tim raised an eyebrow, "What exactly do you mean by a special case?"

The lady sighed, "Well, you see, we thought that with your background would be able to help her better. She is a hard-of-hearing girl who lost her parents when she was and was relocated to the system to live with her aunt after her brother was reported missing four days ago. Normally we would ask a female mentor to help out but with the problems we've been experiencing with the program lately. The main thing is we need someone to help her. This weekend we want her familiar with our program and we should be able to find a new mentor by Monday or Tuesday. I'll be checking in throughout the weekend as well…"

Take on a special case? Tim was all for helping people but the way this woman, Linda, had described the girl, it made him wonder if he could even remotely refuse.

While he was not busy this weekend – unless Gibbs called them in because of a case – a small case of self-doubt started to root itself in his stomach.

Could he possibly be best person to help this girl? It seemed however, that his mind had other thoughts as he asked, "So, what's her name?"

Relief seemed rush onto her face and she smiled, "Oh thank you Tim! Her name is Erica Evens; she is currently in the building. I'll introduce you to her…"

"I just hope we don't get called out this weekend then…" he whispered quietly to himself as he followed the woman.

x-x

Motels are a perfect place to hideout, especially if you need a place to be untraceable. Now was the current time for this situation.

"It was dumb not to wait around for Evens' younger sister to come home, Lopez" a man, in his mid-40s with greying brown hair and another, a Latino man about the same age, were using this situation to their advantage.

"The girl was not aware of her brother's ties to the Pentagon. Even he would not risk that change, Mark."

"But even then, you killed him before we could we find out if she knew something. I don't want to go down for murder if you plan doesn't work!"

"Calm yourself, we need the authorities to believe he vanished willingly. Only then we can move in on the girl, when she is most venerable and simply steal her brother's external hard drive. Then we'll make our fortune to North Koreans. Even if the man himself committed treason, he'll be the one who will go down. By then, we'll be enjoying a nice vacation down in Mexico and be off the grid…permanently."

x-x

Linda had escorted Tim to Catherine's office. He had been in it a few times before but it was rather weird not see Linda's boss sitting in her chair.

The office was well air-conditioned, Tim noted. It was only in the mid-80s today but the recent rains made the weather muggier than usual.

Now he sat in one of the chairs, waiting to meet the girl that he would be mentoring for the weekend.

He almost could not help but feel sorry for the girl. If her brother had been reported missing, was Metro PD actively investigating it or could it be a simple case of an older brother running off for a few days?

The office door opened again to reveal young girl, about the age of sixteen or seventeen standing with Linda.

The teenager had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, with freckles on various spots on her face. However, what Tim noticed mainly however, while the girl had a blank expression on her face, her eyes spoke of something else. There, in her eyes, looked like they were in grief and in panic.

Having been at NCIS for eight years, he had learned to notice particular traits in people and read their body expressions, even if he subconsciously did it.

"Timothy McGee, this is Erica Evens. Erica, this will be your Big Brother for the week-"

It was interesting to note that Erica was eying the woman's face while glancing back at Tim, as if studying him. That was then he noticed the two hearing aids in the girl's ears.

So it was true…the girl have hearing loss. Was this why Linda thought they had a special case? Or was it simply the circumstances about the girl's brother missing?

"He is not my big brother. My big brother is missing and I'm being forced to spend time with some man I don't even know."

A sigh escaped Linda's mouth, "That is not what we're trying to do, dear. Your aunt wants you to get involved in this program. Now please, calm down and speak nicely. Mr. McGee has kindly offered to spend time with you this weekend and I, of course, will be checking in every few hours to make sure you are doing alright."

Tim grimaced. Maybe it was not a good idea to take on a teenage girl. He would rather take on Gibbs and declare out loud he was going to take over Starbucks so Gibbs couldn't order any more coffee before he could deal with an emotional teenager.

Tim could tell it was taking everything in the girl's willpower not to respond to Linda's statement with something. She appeared to have a lot of self-control.

She turned towards Tim and held out her hand, "Hello, it's nice to meet you."

He nodded and shook her hand, "Uh, yes, you too."

If Tim had not seen the girl get angered just mere seconds ago, he would have believed her. It wasn't that he did not believe her but at the same time, he wondered if the girl had halfway meant what she had said.

Tim wondered if he should call Ducky for some advice on how to deal with teenage girls. He could call Gibbs but the thought of his boss asking him why he needed help with a teenage girl made would make him feel a bit nervous.

The last thing Tim needed was to have people thinking that he was scared of being a mentor to a teenage girl. Though, he knew there had to be a way he could relate to the girl in some way and hopefully to help the girl adjust to the Big Brother, Big Sister Program.

And that was all he needed to start up a new conversation as Linda gestured for Erica and Tim to sit down.

"Erica, is there anything in particular you like to do? Gaming…shopping…"

He flushed a bit at the thought of taking a teenage girl shopping. What did teenage girls like nowadays? He could easily recall his sister's teenage years but those been some bad years for him.

Erica raised her eyebrows and looked towards Linda in a bit of confusion, "I don't understand. Aren't you supposed to pick what we're going to do?"

"Erica dear, it is your choice. Mr. McGee is simply asking because it is your weekend…"

"Please call me Tim, by the way. Mr. McGee makes me feel like an old man," Tim added in the last minute. Apparently the other lady seemed to realize her mistake as it caused the woman to flush.

Erica seemed to ponder on this thought temporarily, "Well, I guess we could start with lunch. I am sorta hungry."

Tim noted her eyes too seemed to light up at that thought, if only temporarily.

"That's a wonderful idea. I don't know of any good lunch places besides fast food places. Do you know of any, McGee?"

"There is a seafood place not very far from here. I like to eat there occasionally."

The girl's smiled slightly, "Sure, seafood sounds good."

'Well, maybe I won't need help with a teenage girl after all…' Tim thought.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Tim led the teenager out the building as Linda had sent them off for lunch. Seafood was the choice in the menu and weirdly enough, his stomach was growling at thought of shrimp. Apparently, his stomach thought it was time to eat.

A glance out his watch showed him it was around his normal lunch time that he would take at work when they were not on a case. Pulling his keys from his pocket, Tim looked behind his shoulder as he looked at the girl.

She was staring off in the distance as they walked towards his van. He took a deep breath and sighed.

It wasn't until he unlocked his van did the teen look towards him and she raised an eyebrow.

"Are you married?"

Tim replied with a confuse glance, "I'm sorry?"

"It's your car," she replied, "A man your age is driving a van, so I assumed are married."

Tim resisted the urge to laugh and smiled at the girl, as he opened the car door. So she didn't seem as cold as she wanted to appear, "Actually no, I got the van after my car kept breaking down. It also helps when I'm involved with the mentoring teens such as yourself."

"I'm sorry then." Was all in response he got. Looking over to the passenger side of the van, he raised an eyebrow as he noticed the girl had climbed in the van and shut the door.

"For what?" He asked a bit taken back for the girl's sudden apology. Why was she apologizing? It was not like she had actually done anything wrong. Plus, he was not going to think the girl needed apologize by her earlier outburst simply because there was no reason to force a teen into doing something like that.

"For assuming you were married. I guess every time I see a guy with a van that he has like three kids and is Mr. Mom," Erica replied.

For the first time since he had her say more than few sentences, Tim noticed her voice sounded normal but every now and then, there was an accent with it.

The van's engine was started within seconds as the agent reached for the 'AC' button to turn on the air conditioner. The mugginess of the heat was going to bother him some and it was not even late afternoon yet.

"It's no problem. Actually, you are not the first to point out me driving a van…" Tim trailed off, recalling Tony's particular surprise when he had pulled up with the van at NCIS. To say that his co-workers were a bit surprised.

He had been called "McMom" and it caused a few his female co-workers to stare at him a few days. Abby had even asked him he had been seeing someone new and threatened that if the mystery woman stole his credit card, she would crucify them or something along those lines. She had been particularly hyper thanks to the Caf-Pows that day.

Tony had continued to pick on him a bit about it and while it did not bother Tim, he thought it was hilarious in an ironic twist that Tony then got the idea of wanting to buy Ziva's car after Tim had bought the van.

The girl's mood seemed to lighten up a bit as a small smile appeared on her face as Tim shared that bit of information but still…he still noticed the girl was forcing a mask on her face, as her eyes gave her away. If he had not seen her smile, he may not have caught it so soon.

Inwardly sighing to himself, he wondered why Erica felt the need to put on a mask. Maybe it was her being insecure as a teenager? Or was there something deeper than that going on? He had seen force a mask onto her face so many times he knew in the end it tore Ziva up worse in the end…

Hopefully he could help the girl like he wanted to…

x-x

The first few minutes of the car ride were awkward for Tim. The girl seemed perfectly intent to be quiet and stare out the window, watching the scenery as they drove by.

"Erica, have you lived in DC very long?" Hopefully just asking a few questions would help end the awkwardness he was feeling.

The girl turned her attention back to him and shook her head, "No actually, I've only been here for about a year. I move wherever my brother goes."

Tim instantly recalled Linda mentioning that her brother had been reported missing a few days ago and she was living with her aunt, so he decided to avoid that question right now. It would not be good to cause the girl to get angry, especially if she was willing to talk to him.

"That must be hard…" he replied, a bit unsure on what to say.

Erica nodded and she turned her attention back to the window, one of her hearing aids catching his attention. He noticed the girl spoke very clear and he noticed she did not have an accent when she spoke. While he noticed often kept looking at him visually he wondered why the girl needed the hearing aids.

"Yeah...it is. So, are we near the restaurant?"

Talk about a conversation turner. So Erica did not want to talk about her personal life. So, maybe he could find a way to reach the girl simply by asking her a few of her hobbies over lunch. Maybe then he could figure out what the girl would want to do in the next few hours.

If was still new to DC like she had been saying, then he could possibly take the girl to the different tourist attractions or take her to a movie. There had to be something the girl would enjoy…

x-x

It was not often that Donald Mallard would drive out of his way to simply come eat lunch but when he had heard of a new seafood restaurant opening not far from his new home, he welcomed the idea. Everyone had already left NCIS so early before lunch that he did not get the chance to ask any of them if they would like to join him for lunch.

Jimmy had practically danced out the door to go to is wife and he had even seen Vance leaving the Navy Yard early, probably to go home early to his wife and children, most likely to join them at home for lunch. As for Jethro and his team, they had vanished before he had the chance to ask. He would give grief about it on Monday:

"Was there a fire you and your team needed to attend to, Jethro?"

So, it appeared he would be dining by himself for lunch. Luckily, since moving to Georgetown, it was wonderful to get to experience the new restaurant.

While he was being careful what he ate since his heart attack last May, it could not to eat a little fish…

x-x

"Lopez, this is the fifth time I've been by this apartment today alone. There is no sign of the girl and apparently, the aunt is working a night shift at the hospital. Apparently she is an underpaid nurse…"

The man eyed the apartment door once again from the street, where he had been by watching for several hours already.

"_Damn it, how can one kid suddenly just disappear? Especially one that is supposedly deaf_!"

"Lopez, I think a bit misinformed about the girl. She isn't deaf in the sense that you think of…I think it may have been possible the girl was in the home the night we killed Evans. Where else would the girl have been?"

"_Whatever Mark, I sincerely doubt it would be that hard to find a girl with hearing aids that stands out. This should be able to help narrow her down. Did you find any information from the aunt's phone conversations?_"

"You forget Washington DC probably has numerous teenagers that wear those things. Anyway, to answer your question, from what I heard is that it the girl could be part of Big Brother, Big Sister program now. You know, considering her brother is 'missing' and all that…"

"_So, the aunt would actually have the information that where the girl could be at?_"

"I'm assuming. However, why not cut out the middleman and ask her?"

"_We'll wait until tonight for the girl to come home to her aunt's apartment and see if she shows up…if not we get the aunt_…"

x-x

Tim was actually surprised when he pulled up to the restaurant. The place did not even seem busy, which was odd considering it was after 1:00pm on a weekday. A lot of people would be waiting for their lunch break at work or even possibly trying to have the place rush their food orders out so they could be back to work on time.

What surprise him more, though, was the sight of a familiar Vintage Morgan parked near the entrance. He did not even have to look at the license plate to notice that it belonged to Ducky.

He glanced at the girl in the passenger side of the as put the van in park, who seemed to be eying the Morgan car with great interest.

"That's so cool! Someone has a Vintage Morgan!"

For a brief moment, Erica was actually giving interest to something. How strange that a teenage girl was interested in cars.

Then again, Tim recalled she had been living with her brother, so maybe she had picked up the interest from him?

"If only John was here, he would have loved to see that. He loves vintage cars, especially those from Europe!"

It was then when the girl said he would have loved to see that sent red flags to Tim. She was talking about her brother in the past tense…

"So your brother likes cars?" He asked. Tim instantly noticed the girl's face light up with excitement at the mention of her brother.  
"Yeah. John would always talk about cars for hours and he would-"

It was only then that girl seemed to realize what she was saying that did her entire expression change to one that plainly said, 'Did I just say too much?'

x-x

Please review if you get the chance or if you want too. Thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 3

**NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing except original characters.**

**_DS2010_: Well, you'll see. Thank you for reviewing!**

Chapter Three:

"And he would what?" Tim asked.

He had been unsure it would be a good idea to try and get the girl to continue. What bothered him was Erica talking about her brother in the past tense and her suddenly cutting her sentence so short.

The girl hesitated as she looked at the window, before getting out of the car.

Apparently the question was not going to be answered. Unbuckling his seatbelt, the agent took a second to take a deep breath, sighed, and got out of the car. He walked over to the teen and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's alright. I can understand talking about a family member can be painful. I'm sorry."

The girl sent him a weak smile and muttered a 'thank you' under her breath before looking away from him. He noted her smile actually seemed genuine too. Though, it was like he had just taken one step forward and two steps back at the same time.

At least he could note his attempt getting the girl to talk was touching her in some way.

Surprisingly, the teen had her attention on Ducky's Morgan. The reflection of the girl's face showed she was troubled and bothered by the mention of her brother. It was a face that was all too familiar when he had seen it on Gibbs and Ziva in particular.

"Oh my, Timothy, is my car that fascinating you cannot keep your lovely young friend's eyes off of it?"

Startled, Tim turned around to see an amused Ducky standing outside, the keys to his in his hand. It appeared he was either leaving the restaurant or had seen the two people pulling into the parking lot. A smile appeared on the agent's face he looked over at Erica, who eyed the new arrival.

Apparently, Ducky's remark caused the girl to get embarrassed as her face flushed a bit.

"Well, you see, I was surprised to see a Vintage Morgan car and I got a bit overexcited…" Erica replied.

"She knows a bit about cars, Ducky."

"I can see that. It has been a long time since I've seen any teenager look at my car. Oh, where are my manners? I'm Donald Mallard but you can call me Ducky."

Erica raised an eyebrow, "Hello, I'm Erica. Where did the name Ducky come from?"

"It was a name I had acquired in my youth. You see-"

"So Ducky, are getting lunch or something?" Tim interrupted before Ducky could even get started on one of his long stories.  
Erica gave a small glare towards Tim. He shifted a bit uncomfortably and turned his attention towards Ducky. Apparently the teen had been interested in the story.

The elder man seemed to nod as he remember, "Oh yes. I came out here to get my debt card from my pants pocket. I accidently left in there earlier and forgot to put it back in my wallet. So tell me, are you two here to eat lunch?"

Tim nodded, "Yes, we decided to get a bite to eat after having no idea where we wanted to go."

"Well, do you mind if I join you? Everyone almost ran off so quickly earlier from the Navy Yard I assumed there was a fire I had been left unaware of."

"Navy Yard?" Erica whispered, more so to herself.

"Well, it is fine with me. How about you, Erica? After all, it is your choice," Tim turned to look at Erica, who looked back at him. She simply nodded.

After her reaction just mere minutes before it did not surprise him by the girl's lack of response.

x-x

"_Lopez, I'm getting tired of waiting here. I'm going to grab me a bite to eat…this is getting ridiculous_!"

A sigh was heard on the other phone line…

"Mark, have you ever considered the possibility the girl will show up there?"

"_Yes, but if she comes back even while I'm gone, we can always get her then_…"

"Fine, go get your lunch. I don't want to hear you complain. Call me when you actually have some developments on the girl. Just don't take too long. If we do, there is a slim chance Evans' body could be recover-"

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

"Great, now the moron hung up on me. If he screws this up, I'll go look for the girl myself. She cannot be that far. We need that external hard drive. Now, my dear, do you have any idea where your niece may had hidden something like that? All we want is that…"

A scream was all that could be heard in response.

"Hm, I guess you don't know. However, you know too much already, Ms Evans. It's a shame really but I guess I was wrong to have killed your nephew too soon…"

A few minutes later the sounds of gunshots were all that could be heard from the motel room before a man quickly exited the room and walked out.

x-x

The restaurant was nicer than what Tim thought when he stepped inside with Ducky and Erica. The smell of fresh seafood made his stomach growl. Fortunately, the loud music in the background provided the nice cover to hide that…

Still, he could not help the small blush that appeared on his face.

Walking up to a host stand, the three people were greeted by a host, a teenage boy who appeared to be not much older than Erica.  
"Hello, how many?" The host asked.

"Three."

"Alright, this way please."

As the host went led the three to their table, Ducky appeared to be taken in the décor of the restaurant as much as Tim had been when they first walked in.

The place was decorated with Italian furniture…fake but ones that could fool the average person if someone wasn't used to looking at furniture.

Tim knew a bit about furniture because Penny, his grandmother, had an odd habit of wanting to get a new set of furniture every few years and find ones that looked like those of 1960s. He could remember easily the number of times when he was a child he would beg Penny not to go furniture shopping.

He also remembered when he was about five it was the around the same time he had looked into those red heels…

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Tim said a thank you towards the host as they were seated at a table, near a window. The only annoyance was the loud music playing in the background. It was singing something in Italian that seemed to match the décor. Was this place an Italian restaurant or a seafood restaurant?

"I think I will get this great tasting shrimp platter here," Ducky stated, his menu already in hand and it appeared he had already decided what he wanted.

"How about you Erica, is there a certain type of fish food you would like-" Tim was interrupted by the approaching server.

"Hi, my name is Amy. What can I get you all to drink today?" The woman asked.

"I'll take unsweet tea," Ducky replied as Tim nodded in agreement.

"I'll take the same."

"For you ma'am?" The server asked, looking at Erica.

She had been watching the waitress but seemed a bit confused.

"Uh…what? I'm sorry, I didn't understand you." Erica replied. A sigh escaped the server's mouth. It didn't go unnoticed to Erica, who resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"What would you like to drink?" The server repeated, this time speaking up louder and faster.

"Oh, I guess I'll take a Sprite," Erica, as the girl stared at the woman's face, still appearing a bit confused. The server then took her pen and began writing the drink orders down as she looked back at the guests.

"Okay, I'll be right back with your drinks and to take your order…" The server replied as she walked off her tray and server's book in hand.

"Have you two decided what you want to eat?"

"I already mentioned the shrimp, Timothy. It looks fantastic. What would you like, Erica?" Ducky smiled, his pleasant smile appearing on his face.

"Tapia, I guess," Erica replied, a pained look on her face. With a movement of her hand, she reached up to one of her ears and seemingly played with it for a few seconds before a more relieved look appeared on her face.  
That was odd…had the background music been bothering her hearing aids?

"So tell me dear, how is our Timothy here treating you?" Ducky asked the teen. He had noticed the exchange near the vehicles prior and it had gotten his interest.

"He talks a lot," Eric replied instantly without much thought involved with an answer. A small grin appeared on Ducky's face as he looked at the agent and could not contain a small laugh.

Tim had flushed a bit at the comment, resisting the urge to glare at the teenager. The only reason he had been talking was to make conversation. However, if the girl thought he talked a lot, he wondered what would ever happen if she had met Tony…

"I don't know if we're talking about the same person here Erica."

Expecting a reaction similar to the car ride, Tim was actually surprised with a small smile appeared on the teen's face, "They look alike. Mr. Mallard."

Another small laugh came from Ducky as he was fixing to comment again but Tim was fortunate enough to be saved by the server returning to take their order and going away just as quickly as she came. Erica had eyed the server, when Erica had to ask the server to repeat her questions a few times.

It did not go unnoticed by Ducky or Tim. Fortunately, the girl had particularly been interested in hearing Ducky talk about his Vintage Morgan.

"Mr. Mallard, I really like your car. Did you really have to pay to have certain parts rebuilt?" Erica asked.

"Yes, my dear. Termites like to eat the wood base of those cars so easily. I'm surprised to see such a young girl such as yourself interested in cars."

"I'm not really interested in them that much, to be honest. They just remind me of my brother is all." There was that familiar mask once again on the girl's face.

x-x

Leory Jethro Gibbs could have found plenty to do for the weekend. Even though he about lived his life for NCIS, even Gibbs could deny that he was looking forward to a few days off.

There had not been any cases and doing paperwork meant using a computer…and he just got angry at being around those things. However he was not surprised when he got a phone call on his cellphone.

"Gibbs, here."

"_Gibbs, I know your team just left for the weekend, but it seems that we got a missing petty officer that was reported missing a few days ago_…"

"Leon, that is a probie's job."

Gibbs was right in some aspects. NCIS would normally send lower level agents to investigate the cases of soldiers going AWOL for a few days. In many cases, it was simply the soldier had decided to get drunk and did not want to come back on base for a few days.

"_It's not when the said petty officer may have downloaded classified files from the Pentagon. SecNav wants you and your team to investigate as to why_…"

A beep on line alerted Gibbs someone else as calling him. A glance at the phone number surprised him.

"I got it Leon. Let me call the others."

"_Make sure you do. Time is of the essence_."

"Yeah, Gibbs…" the man stated as he pushed another button his phone, this time putting Vance's call on hold to answer the other call.

"_Gibbs, we've got a report of Metro PD finding a body of an enlisted sergeant_…"

It did not take a genius to figure out the possibility of a body showing up right when Vance called him seconds prior that he feared the worse.

That the petty officer was probably their missing sergeant they had just found…

x-x

It had not taken very long for the food to arrive. For most of the time, Erica had been entertained by Ducky's wild stories he managed to pull out from nowhere. Tim had enjoyed it because he was actually glad to see Erica interacting with someone.

"Then when I got off the bus in Dublin, my mother had answered the phone, 'Donald how you enjoy that pub music.' My ears would not stop ringing for days after that."

To say the medical examiner was enjoying having the young girl listen to his stories seemed to be doing the older man some good as well would be an understatement.

Though he had recovered, Ducky at times still seemed bothered when people would ask how he was doing from his heart attack, only about a year prior. It had taken him several long months to get to recover and even longer for him to recover emotionally.

It appeared that Ducky had needed someone to join him lunch. Tim made a mental note to try and eat lunch with him more often.

"I can relate," Erica smiled jokingly, as she pointed to one of her, "Too many louds sounds and it feels like my ears will never stop ringing."

"Tell me, my dear, how did you start to lose some of your hearing, if don't mind me asking?" Erica gave a pained look back at the medical examiner.

"You don't have to answer, my dear. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way."

There was that familiar mask on the girl's face again, Tim noted. She had changed her expression way too quickly for it to be normal.

"It's fine, Mr. Mallard. I was in a car accident when I was younger with my parents. I can only recall hitting my head and waking up a few months after the incident. I guess whatever trauma I experienced from the accident made me lose a lot of my residual hearing…"  
Tim opened his mouth to apologize when he felt his iPhone start to vibrate as he reached into his pocket. Looking at the screen, it showed he had an incoming call from Gibbs.

As Erica and Ducky kept talking in the background, he got up from the table and answered his phone.

"Hello."

_"McGee, your weeekend's over. We just got a case. I'll have Tony give you the address and you meet us there. Have you heard from Ducky, he hasn't answered his phone_?"

"Yeah, we'll be on our way. Ducky and I were eating lunch…"

"_Good for you two. Nice to know you've been doing that with him, Tim. Anyways, I guess you two can just meet us at there. Palmer is following behind Ziva and I, so neither one of you should need to worry about going back to NCIS._"

"Boss, I got a small problem though. I've been mentoring with one of the teens from the Big Brother, Big Sister program. I have no way of taking her back to her aunt's just yet…"

"_Alright McGee, just make sure you hurry up. We're gonna need your help on this one. A petty officer that was reported missing a few days ago has just been found washed up on the beach_…"

x-x

Please review if you get the chance or if you want too. Thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 4

**NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing except original characters.**

**_DS2010_: Aw, thanks.**

**Gottahavemyncis: I don't know, is it? -evil grin- Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter.**

**Saissa: Thanks for reviewing. The hard-of-hearing teenager is more so to have diversity than anything to this story and to hopefully help educate people about hearing loss. You are correct that many HOH use this residual hearing more, yes, and no, she doesn't know ASL.**

NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing except original characters.

Chapter Four:

The way the lunch was ended and rushed felt odd. Erica could not explain it. The way the look on Mr. Mallard's face was one that seemed…upset? Even she could tell the older man had been enjoying himself and his stories were interesting.

Weird but interesting.

The way, however, Tim looked at her made her stomach tie into a knot. He seemed upset, bothered. Something must have happened.

"Ducky, um, we just had a call in," had been the younger man's reply.

Shameful to admit it, she had been enjoying the company of both of them. While Tim had seemed quiet during the lunch it was nice to be with people, even if she had to hide her feelings.

"Oh my, what about Erica? You can't honestly suggest that Jethro would want you to take a teenager to see such a sight?"

Confusion appeared on the girl's face. What exactly line of work did these two do? She had come to the conclusion that they worked something with the Navy – which the thought of that made the knot in her stomach tie tighter.

"No Ducky, Tony is going to send you the address, so you don't have to worry about going to NCIS."

That statement turned her stomach…

NCIS? These two men worked with the Navy's version to the FBI? Mr. Mallard looked far too old (not that that she had anything against older people) to be an agent or something, but Tim was certainly young enough.

x-x

"They never learn," Tony remarked, standing over the body as the snapped the pictures.

Ziva, who had just finished interviewing a young couple who found the body on the beach, turned towards her own backpack as she grabbed herself a camera to help Tony finish taking pictures to process the scene.

"Who never learns what?" She asked.

"The criminals," he stated, "you would think if they would dump the body out in water, they'd put it out far enough that it would not wash back up to shore."

The body itself was decayed a bit, having been found mere days after the man had been reported missing. Fish live had decided it was going to take some munchies (it that was a proper term to describe it, Tony grimaced) on the body and it had definitely been submerged in the water for a few days.

"Are you speaking from experience, Tony?"

"No, I'm not; I'm just saying that it would have been proper…"

_Smack!_

"DiNozzo, you better stop not finish that sentence," Gibbs remarked as he walked up towards his other two team members, eyeing the body on the ground, "What do you got?"

"'Meet Petty Office Ethan Evans, a sergeant who was stationed at the Pentagon working on highly classified files that apparently we don't have access to know what they were. He was reported missing four days ago by his sister and aunt when he failed to come home from a party with some of his co-workers the night he went missing…'"

Tony trailed off when he looked and noticed Palmer approaching, locking his phone temporarily by hitting the lock button. The younger man had been struggling trying to find a spot to park, interesting enough. He didn't get lost, simply for the fact of the matter that Gibbs had actually rode over with him from the crime scene.

Palmer was now walking over with the gurney and a body bag for the body.

"No one from the Navy ever thought to look into why he was reported missing?" Ziva asked, her eyes going straight for the gunshots clearly on the man's chest.

Jimmy, having not heard the previous conversation, muttered more loudly than intended, "So we have a regular fish out of water again?"

As soon as he said it, the assistant medical examiner was regretting it. The looks on everyone's face to him made him shift nervously as he looked back down to the body.

"Palmer, are you able to get a time of death?" Gibbs asked, choosing wisely not comment this time. Palmer knew better than to make remarks about dead bodies but even if he had head slapped Palmer like he did DiNozzo, there were just some things that could not work miracles. Even his head slaps.

"I think Dr. Mallard may be the better one to say, since a liver probe is useless in this situation. However, I believe he was dead when he was submerged in the water, probably not after he went missing."

Fortunately for Palmer, Gibbs had informed him of the case on the way over here and told him that both Ducky would most likely be joining them at NCIS, since his team had pretty much processed the scene.

McGee and Ducky both had been eating lunch and Gibbs knew perfectly well Palmer could easily handle taking the body back to NCIS and even handle the autopsy.

A problem came from knowing that this was the same man SecNav was breathing down Vance's next about that had went missing four days ago.

If it had been such a problem, why hadn't SecNav wanted his team investigating it from the beginning instead of simply leaving it up to the military police and a new NCIS agent?

Not that Gibbs had major problems with new agents – other than the fact they were not his own team members – but something this important should have been handed down to them.

Grabbing his cellphone, he was quick to dial both Ducky and McGee's numbers. To make things simpler, have them both meet them at NCIS.

x-x

The lunch had been good. There was nothing like getting BBQ wings and them feeling up your stomach. Mark had indeed been happy. He would miss American food when he went to Mexico with Lopez, that is, if he could actually trust Lopez to hold up his end of the bargain.

The man had a trigger happy finger. He knew that Ethan Evans had known too much when he had downloaded classified information from the Pentagon that was given. Though, the idea of murdering a young girl simply because she had the external hard drive that contained information did not sit well with them.

The girl may not have even known what they looked like, let alone, knew entirely what he and Lopez had been up to. Though, one could not deny that Evans and the young girl did look a lot like, especially from the pictures posted on Evans' Facebook page were anything to say for it.

Stopping at a light, he looked over casually to the car next to him…rather the van. Yeah, Evans' sister did look a lot like the girl sitting with her father (brother?) in the van.

It wasn't until the light turned green as he was going back to the apartment did it finally how similar the girl in the van looked to Evans' sister.

x-x

The car ride back to Erica's apartment (rather her aunt's apartment) was a lot less awkward than the ride home. Tim had tried calling Linda from the Big Brother, Big Sister program several times but had received no answer.

Which was odd, considering that woman had been adamantly clear he and Erica were supposed to speak with her a few hours before he had been planning on doing when Tim and Erica would have decided on something they wanted to do for the evening.

"So you and Mr. Mallard work with the FBI to the Navy?"

Tim could almost say he thought Erica was actually interested in the fact that he worked with NCIS but the way she asked the questions almost made it seemed liked she was fishing for information from here.

A bit of his own game being thrown back at him?

He smirked, only because the thought of NCIS working peacefully with the FBI has always had its…interesting interactions in the past few years.

"Actually, while NCIS is under the Department of Justice, it is actually separate from the FBI enough because we investigate crimes for the Navy and the Marines."

"Oh, I see. So you got called into to do some investigating," Erica replied, looking back out the window.

A sigh escaped Tim. This girl kept playing a mask and secretly he wished they had not gotten called out on a case. Ducky had been doing a great job getting the teenager to talk and she had even started to tease him a bit, so the girl had to have liked him a bit.  
He stared at her as they rounded a corner, stopping a red light.

The girl's brother had been reported missing a few days before, correct? Yet, NCIS had been called out to a body found a beach and the girl had mentioned her brother being stationed here, only being here a minimum of a few months.

Tim opened his mouth, closed, opened it, and closed it again. He shook his head.

"Erica, can I ask you something?" He stated quieter than he intended. Why had his voice gotten so quiet?

Apparently the girl hadn't heard him or had chosen not to, as he reached and tapped her shoulder lightly. She jumped a bit and looked at him, startled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," Tim stated, flushing a bit.

Surprisingly, the girl gave him a smile. Not weak or forced, but one that had actually appeared to be genuine.

"It's okay. What did you say? "

"Your brother," the girl's face almost made him regret bringing it up, "How exactly had he gone missing?"

Alarm bells rang out in Erica's head. Here, she had the chance to tell someone the truth, someone who could help her. Her brother was Navy and she missed him, longing for justice for him. Though she was scared, simply because of the one thing hidden in her purse and it was the reason that he brother had been killed.

She had no idea what her brother had been doing at the Pentagon but whatever he had done; she knew he had done it for her. Both of them had lost so much in their lives. Though her elder brother by 11 years, her brother had done so much for her since their parents had died by joining the Navy, and they both were extremely close.

One of the hardest problems had been when Erica woke up from the car accident that had killed both of her parents. She still could not remember much about what had happened and it had always bothered her.

The doctors had been afraid she wasn't going to wake up and Ethan had often talked about the thought of him losing his baby sister. Incredibly, she had made a great recovery but she did not walk away entire unscathed from the accident.

Her brain had swollen and somehow, her hearing had been changed forever. She had lost a lot of her residual hearing, her hearing dropping across the board on the audiogram in to the severe to profound range in one ear and the other ear, though greatly better, was in the mild to moderate range.

It was then Erica had decided not to grow close to anyone beyond her limited circle of remaining family and friends. The loss of everything she knew as a young child had affected her even until today.

Which was why after hearing those gunshots the night her brother had woken her in a panic, forcing her to climb up in their attic that was connected in the hallway, the teenager knew he had been killed…

She did not want to tell this mentor anything. She couldn't risk more people dying because of whatever trouble her brother had gotten into and risk getting close to someone again. She just couldn't.

"I'm sorry, I do not know," was the response, a lie straight out of her mouth.

x-x

The rest of the car ride had been greeted with silence, except for the occasional question from Tim as he made sure he was going in the right direction to the teen's apartment. Erica, apparently, had been in a rush to get out of the car.

"Tim, thank you for lunch and paying for it. It was kind."

"You're welcome, I'm sorry I couldn't take you out to a movie or something this evening."

"It's fine, I think I may go in and watch a movie. I'll text my aunt and let her know I'm home."

"Okay, but me at least escort you to the door, alright?"

"But that's not necessary."

"Don't worry about it. My boss won't get too angry at me for taking a few minutes to make sure a girl got escorted to her apartment safely. In fact, he might get angry with me I didn't…"

Tim grimaced at the thought of Gibbs being angry and doubted that his boss would be angry at him. He could simply explain the situation. Though he knew they needed his help on this case, he had a nagging feeling he wanted to make sure Erica was safe and sound inside the apartment.

Getting out of the car, he started to follow Erica who had glanced one more time in the van to make sure she hadn't left her cellphone in it.

"Alright…" was all he got in a response before the sound of screeching car tires alerted Tm before he could even think of a response.

A quick glance to his left, he was shocked to see a man driving straight towards them in a pickup truck and he didn't appear to have any plans on stopping.

His mind went on autopilot before he could even think. Grabbing Erica's arm, he pulled them both mere feet away the vehicle screeched to a halt, the man getting out of the pickup truck, a gun in his hand, aiming it towards both of the other two people.

x-x

Please review if you want too. Thanks for reading.


	6. Chapter 5

NCIS is copyrighted to CBS. I own nothing.

Chapter Five:

Staring down the barrel of a gun was never a welcome sight for anyone. How could it be a welcome sighed for someone?

Tim did not make any sudden moves, especially with the sudden approach of the man. Erica, standing behind him, seemed to move closer to him. In a way, it almost reminded him of Sarah.

"Don't move," was the response that came from the man's mouth.

Like he expected Tim to do anything else? His gun was, however, located in the holster, beneath his normal layered clothes. Unseen yet in close reach. A glance to his side and he noticed that Erica had a panicked, scared look on her face.

For once, there was no mask on the girl's face. It seemed too terrible to note that it had taken a gun being pointed at her to take the mask off the face.

"Who are you?" Tim asked, choosing his words carefully.

"None of your business," was the only response he got from the man, muttering as he eyed Tim and his eyes danced over to the girl, "Girl, where is the hard drive?"

Erica gave no response as she eyed the man, panic overwhelming her. She had not understood what he had said and she glanced at Tim, with eyes that simply said, 'I'm sorry.'

Mark walked closer to the two people, his thumb in the trigger. A glance at the gun revealed it was a .38 caliber handgun. Most .38 calibers he could recall normally only had five shots.

The issue arrived, however, that with some models of .38 handguns was that was no safety on the gun. One pull of the trigger and the gun would go off.

"Answer me!" The man yelled, this time training his gun off of Tim and pointing it at Erica.

"Hey, she didn't understand you!" The response left the agent's mouth before he knew what he was saying.

Where [i]had[/i] that come from?

The response had certainly surprised Mark, who aimed the gun back on Tim and taken several steps closer to the two again, mere feet in front of them, "You had best be quiet before you talk yourself into an early grave."

[i]Ring! Ring![/i]

The sounds of a phone going off distracted Mark's glance, as he kept his gun aimed at Tim before he reached slowly for his pocket and glancing down at the phone.

That was all Tim needed…

Rushing forward, Tim reached for the man's hand with the gun, pushing his hand upwards. Two shots rang out as the man's finger gripped down trigger. Fortunately, when Tim had pushed Mark's hand forward, the gun was several inches above his head.

Loud ringing sounds entered

Behind him, all heard from Erica was screaming…it almost made Tim's heart stop cold there.

However, he could not spare the chance to look behind him. It was becoming apparent in this struggle that Mark was definitely the bigger of the two men. Tim, though he could hold his own in a fight just as easy, was trying to make sure the remaining shots did not go off again.

Mark's own strength was starting to push Tim's hand back when, surprisingly, unexpected help was given.

_CLANK!_

Mark, meet blunt object. At least, if those words could have escaped someone's mouth they would have most likely been said. In the seconds of struggling going on between Tim and Mark, Erica had taken upon herself to find a medium sized stick to hit Mark in the head with.

The man sunk to the ground in a heap, apparently unconscious. Tim wasted no time to draw his own firearm as he moved carefully towards the man, taking the gun out of man's hand. Carefully moving a foot towards the man and tapping him lightly with his shoe, it was clear the man was unconscious.

Tim then turned his attention towards Erica, who still had the stick in her hand. His eyes scanned her body, looking for any apparent injuries. To his relief, he did not see any. Reaching for his handcuffs, Tim opened them and put them on Mark's wrists.

Without another train of thought, the agent grabbed his cellphone and called for Gibbs…

x-x

By the time they finished processing the scene and getting interviews, the team had already been back at NCIS. Both Ziva and Tony were at their desks, typing away on the tasks Gibbs had assigned them to do.

Ducky was already downstairs with Palmer, starting the autopsy.

Gibbs kept eying the elevator as he waited for his agent walk through the doors. McGee was never one to show up late unless there was a reason.

He needed his agent…

_Ring! Ring!_

The sounds of his cellphone brought Gibbs attention towards his cellphone.

To his relief and concern, McGee's name appeared on it.

"McGee, where have you been?"

"_Boss, I've got a problem. A really big problem. Someone just tried to kidnap myself and the girl that is with me. I managed to subdue the guy and handcuff him."_

"Where are you at? Did you call the LEOS?" Gibbs was already going to his desk to grab his gun and motioned at his other two agents who had glanced up at Gibb.

_"Yes, I called Metro and several officers are already here_."

"Tim, neither of you is hurt?

_"No, we're alright…just a few bruises on me but other than that, I think we're all good." _

"Alright, on my way…"

x-x

Tim had glanced over at Erica once again as she looked about, trying to make the teen was actually safe. However, his mind kept relaying the last 20 minutes in his head. The guy, a random stranger that Tim had never seen before had walked up and pulled a gun on him.

Sure, he had had weapons pulled on him before relate to his job, though Tim had begun to doubt that doubt the man had approached them because of him. His suspicions were confirmed as he overheard Erica lying to a police officer, who had arrived to help close off the scene per Gibbs request.

From the way girl's reactions were throughout the day and her disinterest, he began to wonder if the gunmen's arrival was related to her brother being reported missing…

Tim subconsciously rubbed his ears for a second, trying to calm the ringing in his ears from the gunshots going off near his head. When guns fired without ear protection, the shots were so loud they would cause a ringing that was similar to tinnitus.

It was not until his eyes glanced at Erica's hearing aids did he wonder if his ears were ringing badly, how badly the hearing aids might amplified the gunshot sounds for the teen.

x-x

"So Mr. Palmer, can you tell me more about our victim? I apologize for the late arrival today. I got to have dinner with Timothy and a lovely young lady."

Palmer looked up where he had been cutting into the body to stare at his friend and mentor, "Wait, McGee had date with someone?"

Ducky raised his eyebrows and small chuckle escaped. "No, Jimmy, Timothy took one of teenagers from Big Brother program he participates in."

The elderly man moved from the sink where he had been washing his hands to grab some paper towels to dry his hands with.

Realization dawned on the younger man's face and he resisted the urge to blush, "Oh well, that's great he does that."

"Yes it is. Now, what can you tell me about our visitor this afternoon?"

"Petty Officer Evans…reported missing a few days ago…"

Ducky had drowned out the sound of his assistant when he got a good look at the man lying on the autopsy table. Their victim looked remarkably like the young girl today he had lunch with…

"I believe I know who this is…"

x-x

Thank you for reading.


End file.
